An Erie man awaiting sentencing in a July 2015 homicide received a state prison sentence Tuesday in a separate drug case.

Darion A. Eady, 22, was sentenced Tuesday to serve 15 to 30 months in state prison for selling a total of 12.6 grams of heroin to an undercover police officer on four occasions in January and February 2016.

He pleaded guilty in January to one felony count of unlawful delivery.

The sentence, delivered by Erie County Judge Daniel Brabender, was in the standard range of state guidelines. Brabender also sentenced Eady to four years of probation.

"I just wish I could start my life over," Eady said at his sentencing.

Eady faces a substantially longer state prison sentence at his sentencing Monday, before Erie County Judge William R. Cunningham.

A jury found Eady guilty in February of charges including third-degree murder in the death of 16-year-old Elijah Jackson during an outdoor party on July 24, 2015.

The charge of third-degree murder, or an unpremeditated killing with malice, carries a maximum sentence of 20 to 40 years in state prison.

Eady was one of five men originally charged as co-defendants in the deaths of Jackson and Shakur Franklin, 16, during the same party. The other four defendants, whose case was split from Eady's, are set to face trial April 24, although a pending state Superior Court appeal might postpone the trial.

The four are accused of firing from an SUV during the party, killing Franklin and wounding four others.

Eady has been in the Erie County Prison without bond since March 2016, when he was charged in the homicide. The heroin sales for which he was sentenced Tuesday occurred before his arrest.

Brabender at the sentencing rebuked Eady for selling heroin.

"Every day in court, heroin is a subject," Brabender said. "I've come to the conclusion ... that people who sell heroin have no conscience whatsoever."

Eady said that he had "messed (his) life up."

Madeleine O'Neill can be reached at 870-1728 or by email. Follow her on Twitter at twitter.com/ETNoneill.